STHS 366 | Medicine in the United States: Historical Perspectives

This course surveys the history of medicine in the United States, guided by the following questions: How and why did a particular way of understanding the body, health, and medicine become established as "scientific medicine" in the U.S.? What role have alternative understandings of health and disease played in challenging the status and assumptions of biomedical approaches? How has "progress in medicine" been defined, by whom, and for whom? What political, social, and cultural histories are needed to understand both historical and present-day health inequities in healthcare? How do we develop a narrative of the past that acknowledges both the historical triumphs and tragedies of the U.S. healthcare and medical system and why should we try? How can studying this history improve medical practice, institutions, and education, including provider-patient relationships?